Leading Azerbaijani Opposition Figure Missing After Raids By Security Services

Azerbaijani authorities detained the leader of the country’s main opposition party after raiding his apartment, party officials said.

Ali Karimli’s whereabouts were unclear on November 30, a day after the search at his Baku home, according to the Popular Front Party. Other officials with the party, known as AXCP, also reported their residences searched and had also gone missing.

Turan Ibrahim, whose father Mammad serves as a member of the party’s presidium, said in a post on Facebook that more than a dozen security agents searched his father’s house, seizing his phone and computer and took him to undisclosed locations.

Several other party members posted claims of harassment and surveillance on social media.

In Turkey, meanwhile, security forces detained Gultekin Hajibeyli, another Azerbaijani democracy activist, who is a member of the Coordinating Center of the National Council of Democratic Forces.

Hajibayli told RFE/RL late on November 28 that she had been taken to a detention center in Istanbul. Her colleagues later said they were unable to locate her or get further information about her whereabouts.

Pro-government and other media reported that she was expected to be deported to Azerbaijan.

Karimli’s arrest and the search of his apartment was related to an unspecified criminal case, pro-government media in Baku reported.

Reuters, citing unnamed Azerbaijani government official, said Karimli’s detention was linked to an ongoing criminal case against Ramiz Mehdiyev, a longtime ally of the late President Heydar Aliyev, who led Azerbaijan until shortly before his death in 2003.

Heydar’s son, Ilham, took over the presidency shortly before his father’s death. Since then, he has systematically suppressed dissent by detaining independent journalists, opposition figures, and civil society activists.

The country’s authorities have insisted that fundamental freedoms are protected in the country and that people are not persecuted for their critical positions and political activities.

AXCP posted a statement alleging that Karimli’s interviews with foreign media have “alarmed the Ilham Aliyev regime,” it said.

“In a situation where political activity is almost completely banned in the country, and civil liberties are severely restricted, this operation is the next step toward further intensification of political repression,” the statement said.

“The goal of tying these arrests to Ramiz Mehdiyev is to damage Ali Karimli’s reputation. They worked with Mehdiyev for nearly 30 years themselves. These accusations do not stick to us,” Seymur Hazi, a deputy party chairman, told RFE/RL.